“Oh, Springfield Elementary, I will have you back again! After all, tomorrow is another school day!” – Principal Skinner
Happy Simpsons Day, everybody! Today marks the 30th anniversary of “Simpsons Roasting On an Open Fire” and the beginning of the best ten-ish year streak in television history. I’m sure there are a lot of retrospective pieces up around the internet today, but as you can tell from the near total lack of substantive posts around here, I don’t think there’s much left to be said, so you’re on your own for finding them.
About that total lack of posts: I was hoping to change that starting today, but deadlines are made to be blown. I’m currently in the middle of a rush of real job work, getting over a major hump in my gigantic side project, and moving at the end of the month. So time is scarce.
However, I’ve been plotting a renewed DHS for long enough now that I don’t feel entirely silly disclosing the rough plan. For starters, the site is going to get a facelift. Ten years on the same WordPress theme seems like enough.
As far as actual posts go, I have two ideas that I think would be fun and sustainable as far as time and effort go. The first is to get back into doing Spews Truth From Every Orifice, where I write up the DVD commentaries from good seasons. I’ve only ever listened to maybe a third of them myself, and I figure there’s enough to eat up several more years of this blog’s lonely existence on this has-been planet orbited by a cold indifferent sun.
The second is something I was vehemently against when we started this blog back in 2009: lists. Listicles have a deservedly poor reputation for the simple reason that they’re easy to do and hence mostly thrown together as filler. While I want to avoid warmed over drivel like top episodes or funniest quotes or “times the Simpsons predicted the future”, I think there are commonalities between episodes that lend themselves well to listing, plus it spares me from having to come up with transitions between topics/episodes/whatevers.
Finally, if and when I get some Simpsons posts up around here, I’m also planning to vent regularly about movies and other TV shows, old and new. Some of this will be the hottest of hot taeks about stuff that’s already had too much commentary (the new Star Wars is probably going to be bad, HBO Watchmen fell apart badly in the last three episodes and I don’t know why it’s getting universal praise, and the real reason the Marvel movies are forgettable ephemera: weak villains), some of it will be meta-criticism about the shitty state of movie and TV criticism itself (or at least the stuff I see), and some of it will be praise (fulsome and otherwise) of lower profile stuff I stumble across and end up liking.
So, it’s my usual promise: more posts! And my usual disclaimer: but not now! However, this time there is a plan (sort of).
In the meantime, please go enjoy some ye olde Simpsons on this Simpsoniest of days. Or just re-read my loving take on that very first episode. Happy Simpsons Day!
Dead Homer Society 
11 responses to “Happy Simpsons Day!”
P.S. I am not a crackpot
I am so happy to see you write this. I am looking forward to your new posts. Been following this blog for quite a while now.
godspeed charlie.. godspeed
Sounds great and I’m happy to contribute too.
OOOIII HEYYYY!!!!!!
While I am thrilled to hear that this place will be getting some new content soon, this part had me less than enthusiastic…
I know this is your blog and I am merely a guest here, loyal reader or not, but can I get you to please reconsider? This is probably one of the last, if not ONLY, places on the internet to discuss classic Simpsons, free from the taint of the Zombie defenders. And I feel like one of the few nerds out there who has never cared much about Star Wars, am sick of hearing about superhero movies/shows, and doesn’t watch a whole lot of current TV in general at all these days. There are already a million sites devoted to talking about that stuff, and only one safe haven for open contempt/criticism of Zombie Simpsons while showering the classics with love in the form of articles that are actually intelligent and insightful, rather than just generic, mindless praise.
So if it’s not too much to ask, could this blog remain a Simpsons-only blog and your other articles be posted elsewhere? How about your charliesweatpants.com site? I was following your posts there for a while until that started gathering dust too. Maybe it’s time for it to make a comeback as well?
I completely agree, in fact I was going to say the same thing.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2SFkPiWwAMa73k.jpg me rn
in all seriousness I do have a few criticisms
First of please don’t redesign this site. This site is really appealing to look at and convenient to use compared to most other word press blogs and websites that use web 3.0. A lot of these sites are also incredibly annoying and well unappealing along with feeling slow and have stupid ads.
The current design also suites the general aesthetic. The site gives of a very Simpsons and zombie simpsons feel and it suites the site logo itself, which is also similar to the main cover page of Zombie Simpsons: How the greatest show ever became the broadcasting undead. The site fits the font type color and background color of the logo.
secondly as what another anon said here, please don’t start branching out to other topics that isn’t the Simpsons or non zombie Simpsons like star wars. This is meant to be Simpsons blog, why cant you just post non Simpsons and non zombie Simpsons things like star wars on your charliesweatpants.com site?. most users that come here, come here too read posts criticizing Zombie Simpsons and praising The Simpsons.
Now you may be thinking “what if there are Simpsons fans that like star wars etc.” the problem is this site is constantly being promoted and told that this is a Simpsons site. Simpsons fans are the main users of this site and the main users that come to this site. Other sites even promote or advertise this site as a Simpsons site. There’s a reason this site is called dead homer society, its meant to be about the Simpsons.
If you branch out like this, you will make the site boring for most. as what the other anon said, this is the only place where we can show contempt for zombie Simpsons while praising the Simpsons without zombie Simpsons fans defending zombie Simpsons.
Like I, the other anon and probably many others, we don’t have interest in star wars, superhero movies or series like watchmen. Again while there will be some that are interested, I am very sure the fact that this is a Simpsons site is the main reason people go on it.
Please make this blog stay a Simpsons blog and don’t resign the site.
Sorry if i sound harsh saying all of this but I really don’t want this site to turn into a generic web 3.0 blog that just randomly talks about movies and TV shows.
Remember how one of the things that the Simpsons popular was how it was different to most shows at the time and how the satire started to slowly go away turning it into zombie Simpsons? you don’t want to get rid of the main reasons people come to this site and turn it into a zombie dead homer society would you?
Talking about other shows that have nothing to do with the topic of the Simpsons or zombie Simpsons is getting rid of the main reason people have come to this site which has been mentioned already. Your manifesto even says that this site is meant to be a place for people who don’t like zombie Simpsons but like the Simpsons without the annoying zombie Simpsons defenders. So making this site about other things defeats the purpose of the site and may make a lot not want to come to this site complaining that its not as good as it was.
A third but minor thing, ten year streak? don’t you mean 6 year streak? are you saying that marge not be proud and seasons 8-11 were good? yes its still the Simpsons for those seasons and episodes but using the word “best” and then “ten years” implies that it never declined and that the golden or classic years were also the seasons when it declined.
There are good things to say about this update however, in fact those are my only problems. I am glad you want to return to this site again. Not only that but its nice to see some disclosure or update about why this site has been so inactive with only quotes of the days and no posts. Before this, I could only make assumptions based on old, outdated posts from a few years ago.
Also i really hope that you really are returning because in my experience, I will see a youtuber, or blogger, for example, get inactive, say they are not dead and do an update, then become inactive again, some even delete their update video or post.
Also this is slightly unrelated but back in 2017, you wrote 2 articles that were meant to be part of an extended and expanded zombie Simpsons: how the greatest show ever became undead. was this for physical copies only or are you still yet to do it? Is an extended version still happening?
I was going to say something about the theme too, but my protest about the mixed content seemed more important at the time. Although I like the simple, dark theme (and wish more sites would at least have an optional night/dark theme) I could probably live with a new one as long as we got some more good content around here. But I do hate “web 3.0” too, as you call it. Even so, I doubt Charlie is going to plaster this place with ads or obnoxious graphics. And I don’t think he’s the type to delete this post and pretend like it never happened, even if he can’t follow through with it. (He made a prediction on his own site, for example, and later admitted to being wrong instead of just deleting it.)
Are you asking about the e-book? I didn’t check to see if those were ever added to the copy hosted here, but if not, maybe he’ll put those up too.
While I understand your preoccupations, I do have to wonder if keeping the blog strictly related to Simpsons contents is not a way of killing it altogether. I mean, is there really that much else to say about the series, and its decay, that has not been written about here already?
Actually, I think there’s a lot that could be said and discussed about the series, but it all boils down to this: If this place becomes just another TV/movie blog, that would actually do more to kill it than just remaining a place for QotD. At least some of us have been keeping discussions going amongst ourselves on them. I still recommend this place to other people sometimes. Non Simpsons content would only dilute it.
Dunno if anyone else here paid attention to it, but I used to keep up with the site “Eats Like a Duck”, which did Simpsons recipes. Although it had its share of Zombie content, unfortunately, there was still more from the good seasons, plus there were still a number of other items yet to be made. But it has now become “Cartoon Cuisine”, and while I don’t mind checking out the occasional Futurama recipes, I don’t really care about the other stuff and the Simpsons entries seem to be getting fewer and fewer. It would really depress me to see the same thing happen to DHS here.